Mosquitoe spray

[gypsyman]

Got an email a week or so ago, about using Listerene as a mosquitoe spray. So the wife got a bottle of the store brand equivalant, mixed it about 4 to 1 in a spray bottle. Worked pretty good. Even sprayed the dogs with it for fleas, even though they really weren't scratching. Haven't seen any on them. At less than $2 a bottle, and diluteing it down, a qt. goes along way. Plus, it has to be safer than the chemicals in regular mosquitoe spray. gypsyman

[FourBee]

If I ever have mosquito problems around the house again, I'd like to try it.
Thing is, several years ago I put up some Purple Martin Houses.  No birds showed up for a few of those years.   Now I'm overwhelmed with PM's, but no Mosquitos.  I don't know if the birds are the reason for the absense of mosquitos or not, but we can enjoy an evening outside now without being carried away with those little critters.

[Dixie Dude]

Purple Martins eat their weight a day in mosquitos. 

[myronman3]

i'd be putting up more martin houses then.   

[Buckskin]

Before you go and invest in martin houses, read this paragraph from the Purple Martin Conservatory Association....

Purple Martins, like all swallows, are aerial insectivores. They eat only flying insects, which they catch in flight. Their diet is diverse, including dragonflies, damselflies, flies, midges, mayflies, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, June bugs, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, cicadas, bees, wasps, flying ants, and ballooning spiders. Martins are not, however, prodigious consumers of mosquitoes as is so often claimed by companies that manufacture martin housing. An intensive 7-year diet study conducted at PMCA headquarters in Edinboro, PA, failed to find a single mosquito among the 500 diet samples collected from parent martins bringing beakfuls of insects to their young. The samples were collected from martins during all hours of the day, all season long, and in numerous habitats, including mosquito-infested ones. Purple Martins and freshwater mosquitoes rarely ever cross paths. Martins are daytime feeders, and feed high in the sky; mosquitoes, on the other hand, stay low in damp places during daylight hours, or only come out at night.

[FourBee]

failed to find a single mosquito among the 500 diet samples collected from parent martins bringing beakfuls of insects to their young.

Now that is one thing you notice about the adults feeding their young.  Just before the young take flight, the adults are bringing in large dragonflies and bugs to stuff down all those hungry gullets.

[Dixie Dude]

Ok, so they don't eat mosquitos.  Guess the advertisements were wrong.  My grandparents always put the houses or gourds above their gardens.  I guess to eat bad insects, but they obviously eat the good ones too.

[Dixie Dude]

Dragonflies and praying mantis eat mosquitos. 

[Sourdough]

Here in Alaska we are totally infested with Mosquitos.  We do not have darkness during the summer.  Mosquitos are out 24-7.  Martins feed 24-7.  Their paths do directly cross up here.  My partner has a big martin house that looks like an apartment complex.  Martins fill it up every year.  He has no mosquitos around his house, he has the only deck in the area where you can sit out in the evening and not be bothered with mosquitos.  The rest of this subdivision has mosquitos everywhere.  So I think in our case the Martins are taking a big toll on the Mosquitos up here.

[myronman3]

i dont take much stock in studies, anyway.   especially ones that "disprove" wisdom from our forefathers.  i generally find that our forefathers had it right and the "studies" get it wrong. 

[steg]

Years ago I was pouring a concrete slab, and the truck didn't come until the afternoon, by the time it was ready to trowel off it was late evening and that's mosquito time, I had a bottle of listerine and tried it as a whim, just sloshed it on and went to work, it kept off the mosquitos off, but only for five or so minutes, until I had to apply more, so as a short time repellent it worked fine, but I would say only about 10 minutes, when you stop noticing the smell of it, thats when It quits working.

As far as the Purple Martins, I think they would be going after the larger insects when feeding their young, but I've spent many afternoons watching them stunt fly, and I can only imagine that it was mosquitos they were after.....steg

[Land_Owner]

Can you imagine the eyesight a Martin must have?  And agility(!) to be flying at (what?) 25 mph on the wing and swooping to catch a moving mosquito or dragonfly?  Fantastic!

I prefer to kill mosquitoes and biting insects with permethrin, an active ingredient in many over-the-counter insecticides at the hardware store. 

Diluted to 0.50% with water, permethrin is sprayed on clothing only.  When an insect crawls, alights, probes, or attempts another "near miss" tactic with your treated clothes, it will soon be dead!

[subdjoe]

Here in Alaska we are totally infested with Mosquitos. 

You need to increase the daily and possession limits.

[slim rem 7]

dawn dish detergent is a great non human toxic insecticide..
 if i find a tic thats latched on or still looking for a good tasty place..
 i just dab it with dawn..then theres always skin so soft by avon..
 down here you don t even get funny looks if you smell like it..
 that deet a pretty hard thing, for me to put up with..slim